


The World in Stillness Keeps

by Vampiric_Charms



Series: Burns Most of All [32]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 15:05:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8166208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiric_Charms/pseuds/Vampiric_Charms
Summary: What is true company, really, but being in the presence of the one who brings you peace?  Mairon and Melkor discover this in their own stumbling way.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Set before/during Mairon’s seduction. Plays with a few themes seen in some of my other stories, but it’s also rather light and almost fluffy compared to...a lot of those.
> 
> Enjoy!

Mairon stirred from his slumber at the sound of a door creaking. He opened his eyes, the dimness of the room causing more than a little disorientation as he slowly lifted his head from his plush feathered pillow. The fire he had left burning on the hearth had gone out, leaving the soot-marked white bricks there cold and lifeless, and the Lamps were dark, their light cast elsewhere. It was late, and he had been...sleeping. _Resting_.

The door leading to his small veranda was open, he saw, the lightweight curtains fluttering into his room on the chill breeze coming inside. He wet his lips and stared drowsily at those gently flapping curtains, bringing his mind back to whirring comprehension as he attempted to to recall whether he had left it open before drifting off or if the wind had blown the delicate latch.

Had it been the cold that had woken him, perhaps, or the rattle of the door against the wall?

But movement in the shadows near the window caught his slow attention, and he turned his face to them before they could flit away again. The blurry outline of a figure came more into view. He blinked, unafraid.

“I did not expect to find you asleep,” Melkor said, his voice hushed as the shadows he stepped from. Silvery light ran across the sharp contours of his face, exposing pale skin and a sly smile. “I do not believe I have ever stumbled across you so very vulnerable before, have I.”

Mairon paused over his words for a moment, taking in a breath of the cool air still blowing from outside and resting his weight back into his hands as they held him up from the mattress. “I do not sleep often,” he said, the answer honest when he found his mental faculties lacking for a more scathing reply. “But I had a very long stretch in the forge without rest and felt the need to regain a bit of myself. I was more tired than I usually am.”

“And now?” Melkor asked as he came further into the room.

“I am still tired. You interrupted me.” He fell silent. His mind was slow, disturbed from its cycle of rest and not able to so quickly snap back to its usual sharpness, and Mairon felt out of sorts as he watched Melkor step away from the window and that open door and instead toward the lifeless fireplace. But never did fear grasp at his chest, nor was there anxious confusion to bite at the heels of his befuddled thoughts.

The Vala knelt at the hearth, quiet, and silence descended again. Mairon could not see what he was doing, there in front of the cold fireplace, but suddenly flames leapt forth and their cheerful light and blessed heat filled the deadened space.

“This will not keep you awake, will it?” Melkor murmured, easing from his crouch only a short distance to the nearby armchair. He sat with great comfort and leaned back, still able to see the bed clearly. Mairon stared at him, somewhat taken aback by the inquiry, and Melkor gestured absently to the fire, small for all its warmth. “You do not seem like one who takes well to even a brief chill. You always have this lit, at any rate.”

“Yes,” Mairon agreed, turning his eyes from the Vala and instead gazing into the flames. He had not heard the scrape of flint into tinder or kindling in the flat stillness before the fire had awoken, and his eyebrows narrowed as this notion took hold and refused to leave. “I mean to say, no, it will not bother my rest. How did you do that, light the fire without assistance?”

They were both somewhat surprised by the bold, slightly sleep-slurred question, and Melkor looked at him with sharp interest. “Perhaps,” he said with a curling grin, “I will show you one day. I am quite sure you have such capabilities yourself, once honed.”

The fog of exhaustion crowded into Mairon’s mind, pushing away any response he may have had to such a curious statement. His eyes slid back to the fire, drawn by the familiar crackles and flights of flame as they edged against his soul. He wondered, then, why Melkor had come, why he was there at such an odd time. But, really, it was _not_ such an odd time, and Mairon would typically be quite able to interact as he always did. Melkor had simply chosen…

His thoughts ran away from him then, and he blinked.

After a moment, he moved to angle his body toward the edge of the bed, beginning to swing his legs over. He had not even reached for a blanket, so much earlier, a testament to his unusual fatigue, and there were no bedclothes to push away as he attempted to stand.

“No,” Melkor said, the unexpected word startling Mairon as it broke through the easy silence. “No, do not rise. There is no need. I was simply bored and in search of company,” he explained in answer to the question that had not been asked. He stood from the chair, casting a long look in Mairon’s direction as he spoke quietly again. “Return to sleep, if you still require it. I will leave you.”

“Don’t go.”

It had settled over him unbidden, the intense wave of loneliness at the very idea of being left alone, and the request slipped from his traitorous mouth before Mairon even realized the thought had formed.

But he held the Vala’s intense stare as it settled heavily on him and gathered his words as best he could without attempting to take the request back. “I do not like to sleep,” he said clearly, hiding this odd sense of desolation in the simple statement. “And you may stay, if company during this late hour is all you are looking for. Sometimes even unresponsive companionship is enough to keep at bay whatever you are hiding from, is it not?”

Melkor grinned, just a small twinge of his lips, and sank back down into the chair beside the fire. “What is it like, to sleep?” he asked pensively.

“Dark,” Mairon said with little emotion as he rearranged his pillow and unfolded a blanket. “Sometimes one can dream, inside their unconscious mind, though this is something I rarely experience myself. And...perhaps it is a bit lonely,” he admitted softly. He felt Melkor’s eyes alight upon him again in the dim firelight, but this time he did not meet that heated gaze.

Melkor looked away, to the fire himself now as Mairon settled back down into the plush, comfortable bed he had no desire to be lying in. Mairon could only just see the chair over the footboard, Melkor’s profile stark and pale in the mingling silver and gold darkness. He sighed, a mere breath of air ghosting from his lungs, and closed his eyes to the unfortunate lull of sleep.

“There is no need for either of us to be lonely, Mairon,” Melkor murmured softly, almost as an afterthought to their conversation. “Not now, not any longer.” 

Mairon did not respond, nor did he notice as Melkor turned his deep blue eyes on him again across the space of the room. He had already tumbled back into his fathomless sleep, gone and away from the world.

“I will keep the fire burning until you wake.”


End file.
